19" Magnavox color table set

[consoleguy67]

Hi all,
Back in June of 1974, my parents bought our first color tv. It was a 19" Magnavox table set. It was unusual in the fact that the only controls on the outside front of the set was the channel knob and a rocker on/off switch. It had the big metal channel knob, with a black plastic fine tuning/UHF channel knob in the center. The VHF channel numbers lit up in a small square above the channel knob, and when you switched to UHF, a large display lit up to show the channels in a log rule type display, like an analog radio. As you turned the black knob, a light slid up and down to the number for the channel. The volume, brightness, contrast, etc. controls were behind a black plastic door under the picture tube, like a Zenith, and they were all slide controls. The cabinet was all plastic, in a Pecan woodgrain design. It was an all tube set. Does anyone know what set I'm talking about, and does anyone have pictures of this set? I haven't seen another one like this since my parents got rid of it in the early 80's, due to needing a transformer.

Thanks for any information,
Frank

[zeno]

I remember them. IIRC they were half tubes. Built on a
large PCB that loved to get cold joints. The FBT was behind the tuners
so you had to pull the chassis to get to them. FBT's went in them
& IIRC was a big kit with a new tripler also. The U & V tuners and
the slider controls all couldnt be kept clean. I think the only
made them for a year or two. Just as well I hated them ! After
that the solid states came out & were 10 times better If you
want a pix look for brochures on e-bay. Also the Sams manual will have
a B&W pix on it.

73 Zeno

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by zeno

I remember them. IIRC they were half tubes. Built on a
large PCB that loved to get cold joints. The FBT was behind the tuners
so you had to pull the chassis to get to them. FBT's went in them
& IIRC was a big kit with a new tripler also. The U & V tuners and
the slider controls all couldnt be kept clean. I think the only
made them for a year or two. Just as well I hated them ! After
that the solid states came out & were 10 times better If you
want a pix look for brochures on e-bay. Also the Sams manual will have
a B&W pix on it.

73 Zeno

I don't remember the control panel, but I do remember replacing the flyback on one of those dogs. The original FBT had a HV rect tube and the new one used a trippler. You had to install all the engineering changes, as well.
IIRC, there was a bunch of diodes and a few other components. They were good enough to send a schematic to show where all those parts went.

[Olorin67]

Slide controls were a huge 70's fad, until people found out how hard they are to keep clean. Ive seen a lot of 70s audio gear with slide controls, I usually avoid them like the plague. look cool, function- not so much.

[consoleguy67]

In searching Google, I actually found a picture of it.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by consoleguy67

In searching Google, I actually found a picture of it.

Link?

.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Olorin67

Slide controls were a huge 70's fad, until people found out how hard they are to keep clean. Ive seen a lot of 70s audio gear with slide controls, I usually avoid them like the plague. look cool, function- not so much.

I have a Zenith AM-FM-stereo FM clock radio, model H480W (1980), with slide pots for volume, balance and tone. The radio worked quite well for many years, then I tried to clean one of the sliders with tuner cleaner. I don't know what I did to cause it, but the FM reception became very weak and noisy after that and hasn't been the same since. AM reception is excellent. I guess I must have either knocked a connection loose (from the force of the spray) or else the tuner spray itself shorted something out. Everything else, except the power reserve backup battery, still works as well as when the radio was new. When I plug the radio in, the clock starts at 11:00 or some other odd hour.

[Jon A.]

I have an 8-track deck with sliders that aren't much good. DeOxit made very little difference. No big deal, that one was a freebie.

[radiotvnut]

I've seen one or two of those Maggie TV's; but, they didn't stand the test of time like an RCA, Zenith, or other better quality set. By the time I started picking up TV's in the early '90's, most of them had already hit the trash pile. However, I saw a fair amount of tube Magnavox color consoles and I was even asked to fix a few; but, I think the main reason those stayed around is because of the cabinet. Magnavox did a decent job at making console stereos and portable record players; but, they didn't do such a good job at making a decent color TV.

[consoleguy67]

This particular set was definitely not one of Magnavox's finer sets. I remember watching the set the same night my parents bought it, when the picture went out, and it started to smoke. My father ran across the living room to shut it off and unplug it. He brought it back to where he bought it (Newmark and Lewis in Lake Grove,NY), and they gave him another set. I still don't know why he didn't buy a Zenith.

[radiotvnut]

He could have probably bought an entry level Zenith 4-tube hybrid TV for about what the Magnavox cost and there's a good chance that the Zenith would still be in service.

[bgadow]

I've seen more dead Maggie's than any other brand. Several relatives, friends of the family, etc, had me look at the one they had tucked away in the basement and I could never get any of them to work. (Not saying much, I never really knew what I was doing!) Most of those sets had first rate cabinets and likely cost a small fortune, hence the desire to keep them around.

[sampson159]

magnavox was high dollar here.only sold at lazarus which was very high end and high quality goods.great store with 6 floors and an annex with 3 floors.the best display of color sets in ohio.would travel by bus there on saturdays to watch the color programming.

[zeno]

When couples came in for a set often the woman wanted
a Maggy for the cabinet. The hubby wanted the Zenith or RCA
for the quality & technology. Most Maggies were sold at big
stores like Jordan Marsh or exclusive dealers.
As far as the chassis goes the tube sets I never cared for at all.
They could run good & last but they always seemed to need
more work. Solid states up til the NAP years were easy sets
BUT soldering was an issue. If I ever found an early Maggy
SS set the first thing I would do is pull the chassis & resolder
nearly the whole mother board & GND's. Then I would pull all the
modules & do the connectors. That fixed a lot of them.

73 Zeno

Originally Posted by bgadow

I've seen more dead Maggie's than any other brand. Several relatives, friends of the family, etc, had me look at the one they had tucked away in the basement and I could never get any of them to work. (Not saying much, I never really knew what I was doing!) Most of those sets had first rate cabinets and likely cost a small fortune, hence the desire to keep them around.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by sampson159

magnavox was high dollar here.only sold at lazarus which was very high end and high quality goods.great store with 6 floors and an annex with 3 floors.the best display of color sets in ohio.would travel by bus there on saturdays to watch the color programming.

That was a good name for a Magnavox dealer,"Lazarus". Magnavoxes always had to be brought back from the dead.